The Global Leader in Photodynamic Solutions

Posts tagged: MRSAid

Although hospitals are centers of refuge for those who need care, an unfortunate reality is that the number of people coming in and leaving these facilities inevitably results with the spread of disease and infections between patients, doctors, and other health care workers. These unintentionally transmitted diseases, born in hospital settings, are collectively known as Hospital Acquired Infections (nosocomial infections in medical literature). This class of disease results in over 99,000 deaths each year in the United States alone.

One significant form of nosocomial infection is Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia (VAP) which, as the name suggests, is pneumonia (an inflammatory condition of the lung) transmitted to patients while they are on mechanical ventilator breathing support. The incidence of this disease is between 8% and 20%, and mortality rates are between 20% and 50%. As a result, VAP has a critical impact on morbidity, length of stay, and cost of ICU care.

A significant contributor to such high rates of incidence and morbidity is the fact that patients on mechanical ventilation systems are often sedated and are rarely able to communicate or cough up the biofilm that grows in the tubes and drains down into the lungs. Typical symptoms of pneumonia may be absent or unobservable, leading to delays in detection and therefore treatment. Under these conditions, the medical signs that a patient has acquired pneumonia are increased number of white blood cells on blood testing and new shadows (infiltrates) on chest x-rays. Other important signs are fever, low body temperature, purulent sputum, and hypoxemia (decreasing amount of oxygen in the blood).

If any of these symptoms are suspected by care takers, two conventional methods of diagnosis are deployed. The first is to collect cultures from the trachea while also scanning the chest with an x-ray to detect new or enlarging infiltrates. The other method is more invasive and involves a bronchoalveolar (where fluid is squired out small areas of the lung and recollected for examination), as well as a chest x ray.

Treatment regimens depend on the specific bacteria causing the inflammation, although a widely used first step is the prescription of empiric therapy (broad spectrum antibiotics) until the particular bacterium and its sensitivities are determined. Once the specific microorganisms implicated in generating pneumonia are known, more antibiotics are prescribed. The use of antibiotics raises the issue of resistance from the bacteria, and the related decrease of efficacy of the antibiotic in the years to come.

Photodisinfection is a non antibiotic approach under development by the research and development teams at Ondine Biomedical Inc., for the decolonization of the tubes of long term intubated patients. Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated proven effects of Photodisinfection directed toward the inner surface of the endotracheal tubes. The Exelume™ Photodisinfection system is currently being tested in NIH funded clinical trials in the US. Other Photodisinfection applications under development by Ondine include: periodontitis, chronic sinusitis, burns & wounds, UTI, vertical transmission of HIV, nasal decolonization to reduce SSI, GI infection protection, etc.

We couldn’t be any more excited by this! After announcing the results of our Vancouver General Hospital project, we were featured on national canadian news. In this year-long quality improvement project, patients entering major select surgeries were treated with MRSAid Photodisinfection System and chlorhexidine body wipes. This was done to reduce their risk of developing surgical site infections. Here are highlights of the data:

Surgical site infections were reduced by 39%

Vancouver General Hospital saved ~$1.9 million

Readmissions due to surgical site infections decreased from 4 to 1.25 cases/month

553 patient bed days were freed up

138 more surgeries could be performed

We are grateful for the amazing work Dr. Elizabeth Bryce and her team at Vancouver General Hospital team has done to integrate MRSAid into their workflow. Check out these videos:

“We have spent the last 70 years using and misusing antibiotics to treat and prevent common infectious diseases…It is therefore imperative that non-antibiotic solutions to fight infections are developed in order to preserve the next generation of effective medicine.”

Carolyn Cross Inducted Onto Board of IPA

Our CEO has done it again. Two weeks after being featured in the Vancouver Sun Newspaper, Ms. Cross has now been inducted onto the Board of the International Photodynamic Association (IPA). Founded in 1986, the IPA brings together the most distinguished international clinicians and scientists involved in researching and developing photodynamic therapy. Ms. Cross will help raise awareness about the benefits of this technology and help bring it to the forefront of medicine.

We are very pleased to share this announcement with all of you today. Ms. Cross has been with Ondine for over a decade and was one of the initial founders and financial supporters of our company. Under her leadership, Ondine has developed a rapid R & D program and is now seen as one of the world’s most renowned group of experts on photodynamic therapy and photodisinfection. Read more »

Today, we celebrate our first blogging milestone – our 100th post. It’s incredible to see how far we have come, and exciting to imagine where we soon will be. You, the readers and followers of Ondine’s blogs, have played the central role in getting us here; your encouraging words, insightful comments, and guest blog posts have helped us tremendously throughout this process. Thank you so much.

Our goal has always been to make important points in bite-sized, digestible sound bites for today’s fast paced world. Our first one hundred posts have helped lay the foundation for this, and our next steps involve creating more engaging, relevant and compelling content. This will come in the form of videos, graphics, testimonials and case studies from the field.

Carolyn Cross, Chairman & CEO of Ondine Biomedical Inc, understands too well the importance of supporting women in business. This week, the Vancouver Sun Newspaper highlighted her involvement & support for this week’s Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) International Conference. This is a unique event that connects highly successful women from around the world in promoting the advancement of women across all industries. The WPO is an exclusive membership organization for women presidents of multimillion-dollar companies. Collectively, members of the WPO have 24,000 years in business, generate $14 billion in annual revenues, and employ 105,000 employees.

Last Friday, we announced an innovative partnership with Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), one of Canada`s largest hospitals. Today, we are very excited to have this partnership featured on Global News.

MRSAidTM is a non-antibiotic therapy designed to eliminate bacteria in the noses of patients during high infection risk times. Pathogenic bacteria such asStaphylococcus aureus and MRSA can significantly increase the risk of a patient developing serious infections after surgery. As part of our partnership with VGH, MRSAidTMwill be used on patients undergoing cardiac, spinal, breast reconstruction, thoracic, neurological, and orthopaedic surgeries. We are very excited to be working with the leaders in infection control at VGH. For more information on MRSAidTM, please visit www.mrsaid.com. Also, connect with us on Twitter & Facebook, we`ll be happy to respond to any of your comments and questions.

World Health Day is celebrated on the 7th of April every year to mark the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO). Each year, the WHO selects a key health issue and encourages people from around the world to hold events and promote actions that will improve health. It is very fitting for Ondine then that this year’s World Health Day theme is “Combating Drug Resistance.” We have spent the last 70 years using and misusing antibiotics to treat and prevent common infectious diseases. Today, we have entered an era where bacteria have developed the ability to become resistant to most antibiotics, rendering them almost useless. It is therefore imperative that non-antibiotic solutions to fight infections are developed in order to preserve the next generation of effective medicine. Read more »